A few days after completing these two white styled models we were surprised (and pleased) to discover they had been the focal point for a presentation to David Cameron about the Swansea Lagoons tidal energy project (apparently they couldn’t tell us beforehand for security reasons). The models are both at 1:1000 scale and show two different areas of the lagoon structure. The largest model shows the leisure facilities where the lagoon wall joins the mainland whilst the small model shows where the turbines generate electricity from the twice daily rise and fall of the tide (the Bristol Channel has the second highest tidal range in the world). If you click on the images to enlarge them you’ll see that even at this small scale (1mm represents 1 metre) we can show a high level of detail.

After being centre of attention at the football Stadium event, our Cardiff City model is now on temporary display within the County Hall offices in Cardiff Bay. As you can see from the images it’s a much more low-key venue but we’re told it does get a regular stream of visitors, from politicians and potential inward investors right through to police officers from other cities who use the model to help with crowd control planning for visiting football supporters (sadly not from premiership teams this year!). It’s going to be in County Hall for a few more weeks before moving to its permanent venue in the new Library (opposite John Lewis) where it will be open to the general public. Since the stadium event we’ve added a few tweaks and improvements to the model itself and to the interactive element including a new “All lights on” button which lights up all 36 of the model’s lighting zones at the same time.

Here’s a first glimpse of the massive project we’ve been working on for the last 5 months, a 6.5 x 5.5 metre interactive model of Cardiff. We set it up for the first time yesterday at a major launch in the Cardiff City football stadium where it was the centre of attention for over 200 specially invited guests. The model has been designed for use in a permanent marketing suite to promote the city of Cardiff to national and international investors. It is a fully interactive model controlled via a large touchscreen which activates over 30 different lighting zones on the model and at the same time displays relevant information pages on the screen. The touchscreen images are also projected onto a large screen above the model so that the information is visible to all. More information to follow soon.

We’ve made three of these housing development models already this year and we’ve got four more in the pipeline over the next couple of months. 1:200 is an ideal scale for these types of models because it allows us to show a good level of detail but keeps the model reasonably compact, which is important if it’s going into a cramped sales cabin on site. For larger developments with over 100 plots we sometimes have drop down to 1:250 scale, just to keep the model at a manageable size.

Over the last few months we’ve been working on an extremely large architectural project and fitting in small projects around it, such as this set of custom designed display stands. They were commissioned by a collector who wanted simple, low key stands to display his newly acquired ancient weapons (some of the blades still bear the auction lot number tags). There was no particular brief other than to keep it clean and simple. Our solution was to combine clear acrylic supports with a polished walnut wood base. We also laser-engraved the description of the items onto the acrylic base panels (you can see this if you click on the images to enlarge them). We think Macbeth would have approved – the client certainly did.